Natural gas has the potential to become the dominant fossil fuel in the future, but producers and users will need to ensure they have the most advanced energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software platform to manage trading, risk, and scheduling. (Learn more in "The 5 Must-Have Features in Gas Scheduling Software.")
There are three main benefits to the use of natural gas: it is cleaner than oil, there is an abundant supply, and natural gas has the support of important proponents. In addition, growing adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will change natural gas from a regional commodity to a global one. BP has an interesting report on its website about the future use of natural gas.
"Over the next 20 years, natural gas is expected to catch up with oil and coal and emerge as the main hydrocarbon component of a more sustainable energy mix."
— from BP website, "Today and tomorrow – the rise of gas," http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/press/bp-magazine/observations/the-rise-of-gas.html
It's been estimated that natural gas emits roughly 50% less CO2 than coal when used in power generation. And natural gas emits 20–30% less CO2 than oil.
According to the above-mentioned BP report, the world consumed 30 trillion cubic meters of gas in the last 10 years and actually increased the supply by the same amount. So, as we use gas, we are building reserves at twice the rate of use.
One of the biggest proponents of increasing the usage of natural gas is T. Boone Pickens who put forth his plan in support of US energy independence (http://www.pickensplan.com/the-plan).
The Pickens Plan is a strategy for reducing US dependence on OPEC oil. There are several pillars to the Pickens Plan with the main pillar being:
"Nearly 15% of the oil we use in America goes into fueling 18-wheelers with diesel. Big over-the-road trucks are too heavy to power using current battery technology. Fleet vehicles like buses, taxis, express delivery trucks, and municipal and utility vehicles (vehicles that return to the 'barn' each night where refueling is a simple matter) should be running on clean, cheap, domestic natural gas rather than expensive, imported gasoline or diesel fuel."
LNG enables the transport of natural gas around the world and underpins its future growth and status as a global fuel. LNG was 10% of aggregate gas supply in 2012 and is estimated to grow to 13% by 2020.
Natural gas has a very important future role in the energy supply for the world, but its prices are extremely volatile and businesses require sophisticated ETRM software platforms to manage its usage.
Eka’s natural gas ETRM software platform is an advanced solution for managing the front, middle, and back office. The solution has all the required functionality to manage natural gas including trading, risk, processing, scheduling, logistics, accounting, reporting, and analytics. The platform supports natural gas, NGLs, and LNG.
As natural gas grows in usage and importance so should the deployment of Eka’s advanced ETRM natural gas software platform.